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The struggle against white skin privilege and white supremacy is key.
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"You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future.”
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Friday, February 11, 2011

So was it a revolution in Egypt? Was it regime change? What was it? The real question is will whatever it was - which was remarkable, by the way - it must deepen if there is to be real, fundamental, long lasting change. The people of Egypt deserve more than a change at the top. They deserve for all their efforts a real change in power relationships in the country. They deserve more than "democracy." They deserve to rule themselves, to oust the rich and powerful classes that have run Egypt forever. Wouldn't it be wonderful if Egypt become a truly socialist nation, run by the working people and not by the bosses. Keep the Workers Councils, independent unions, neighborhood defense committees, Peoples Organizations going. Build the Revolution.

In the meantime, I have to say, you've done far more in the past two weeks than most of us do in several lifetimes.

The following appears on the facebook page of Jase Short.

Mubarak Resigns: Why It Is Vital That the People Not Stop Now

One thing is clear from the events of the last 18 days: the power of the people is now back on the world stage in a dramatic fashion.

What has transpired in Egypt is nothing less than the largest popular revolution in the last 30 years. Two weeks of demonstrations and mass actions put the regime of Hosni Mubarak on its last legs--but only 2 days of strikes were enough to bring him down. Masses of working class people have participated in the protests, swelling the ranks in the streets, but once the working-class began to operated in an organized fashion, the regime could not sustain itself. As the Revolutionary Socialist Organization of Egypt said: "The regime can afford to wait out the sit-ins and demonstrations for days and weeks, but it cannot last beyond a few hours if workers use strikes as a weapon."

The ruling classes of the world are now on notice: the people are back, in a big way.

While it is good and necessary to celebrate this victory, we must also understand that this political revolution is not yet a social revolution--and beyond that, it is but a very minor political revolution. Cultural change is sweeping Egypt in a way that it has not in a very long time, caused by the movement for democracy from below. The explosion of popular organization in the form of independent unions, neighborhood defense committees and new political organizations will forever change the face of Egypt, the Arab world, the entire Middle East and the world itself. However, the regime created by Mubarak remains in place.

The regime of Hosni Mubarak is a creation of local Egyptian elites who worked in tandem with US, Israeli and European interests to repudiate the Arab Nationalist regime of former Egyptian President Gamel Abdel Nasser. Nasser's government came into existence in 1952 following a revolt by military officers against the British-installed monarch King Farouk. Nasser himself did not take power until 1954, but he was the major architect of the 1952 overthrow.

Nasser's regime opposed forms of popular self-organization but gained an enormous amount of respect from the people of Egypt and the entire world with his robust opposition to Israeli imperialism and indeed following the 1956 Suez Crisis, world imperialism itself. The regime operated via nationalizing major industries in order to develop the country's economy.

The Arab Nationalism of Egypt was supported by ruling elites to counter revolutionary internationalism, and its limitations (especially via the nation-state) were made clear during the 1970's. Below Nasser in the hierarchy of the regime was Anwar Sadat, who began the process of creating the regime that is in power today in Egypt. Sadat made peace with Israeli apartheid, giving de facto support for continued imperialist bludgeoning of the Arab world. Without fear from the Egyptian government--the only effective counterweight to Israeli aggression--the Israeli government was able to spend the following thirty years demolishing the region in the name of "security." Invasions and occupations of Lebanon coupled with airstrikes on Iraq and multiple vicious campaigns against the "internal" threat of occupied Palestine became the rule of the day.

A splinter group of the Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Sadat, a kind of "chickens coming home to roost" moment for the Egyptian ruling class. To counter working-class self-organization and revolutionary internationalism (not to mention more consistent and independent secular Arab nationalism) the government in Cairo did what many other governments across the Muslim world did during the 1970's: bolster--both directly and indirectly--religious political groups to provide the only effective opposition (the most cynical version of this policy in the region was the Israeli intelligence services' support for Hamas in Gaza during the First Intifada in order to counter the Arab nationalism of the Palestine Liberation Organization).

Following this, the next person in line in Sadat's regime--the former head of the Air Force--was none other than Hosni Mubarak.

Mubarak's government--as part of the US-brokered Camp David Accord with Israel--would receive $1.3 billion dollars in military assistance a year over the course of the next three decades. As Egypt no longer had an external foe, the intention of this assistance was clear: to maintain the repression of the people of Egypt.

Why the need for repression? Peace with Israeli apartheid and imperial designs on the region was of course not popular in the largest Arab country in the world, but beyond this, the large-scale privatization of Egypt's industries did not go over well with the people. Massive drops in living standards followed as members of the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) made millions of dollars. In the 1990's, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) imposed structural adjustment policies on Egypt with the support of the regime, resulting in economic devastation.

Resistance was, during this period, either violently repressed or co-opted. A place was found for the Muslim Brotherhood--though officially banned--in the pseudo-parliament. The bogeyman of the Brotherhood (alongside more violent Islamist elements whose activity peaked in the 1990's) provided Mubarak with sufficient justification to crack down on the population in excess.

Resistance to the regime did continue, however. In 2003, a massive protest in opposition to the Iraq War turned on the Mubarak regime itself. In 2005, the Kefaya (Arabic for "Enough"; akin to the Latin American "Basta Ya!" slogan) movement formed around multiple liberal civil society organizations. But the most significant mobilizations were those of the Egyptian working-class and various youth movements (the April 6th Movement was formed around youth trying to support a failed general strike in 2007). From 2007 to 2009, many workers--centered around the industrial city of Malhalla--participated in a strike wave that challenged the authority of the government-sponsored trade union confederation (whose existence served to take the wind out of working-class self-orgnanization). Some of these struggles developed into full-on street battles with the police.

These struggles laid the foundation for the uprising on January 25th--all it took was the catalyst of Tunisia's "Jasmine Revolution" to touch off the movement. Many middle-class activists--socialist, liberal, and Muslim Brotherhood--linked up via social networking sites and plotted to mobilize mass street protests. A fairly sophisticated strategy of giving the security services false leads (for instance, announcing that the demonstrations would begin in a wealthy neighborhood of Cairo) linked up with a fairly crude strategy of literally walking down the street in working-class neighborhoods and calling for people to join led to massive marches on the 25th. From that moment, everything changed.

Masses of working-class individuals joined the protests, swelling the ranks of the demonstrations to millions of people. The government was unable to use the military to crack down on the demonstrations after the protesters literally fought the police off the streets. Instead of a Tiananmen-style crackdown, the government devised a rather clever strategy of appealing to the popularity of the armed forces (a major part of Egyptian culture following the 1952 uprising against the King and due to the army's role in the 1967 and 1973 wars against Israel). The military's true role was put on display on that fateful Wednesday when paid NDP thugs (and plainclothes police officers) were allowed by the military to attack to the protesters with vicious and crude tactics (including the infamous camel and horse charges).

More and more demonstrators joined following last Monday after many Egyptians went to work for the first time since the 25th and had conversations about what was actually going on (Egyptian state TV did not present the demonstrations as either large, important, or led by the masses of the Egyptian people). Then, just a few days ago, all hell broke loose for the regime.

Workers in the steel, petrochemical, transport, military production, docking, chemical industries went on strike. Masses of doctors, nurses and lawyers took the streets. Journalists for the state media resigned and a major newspaper actually took the unprecedented step of actually siding with the marchers. Mass demonstrations in Cairo, Suez, and Alexandria were joined with a much more widespread uprising across the entire country, even penetrating Upper Egypt (the southern part of the country) for the first time since the entire movement began.

Once workers went on strike, the regime shifted into panic mode. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (which had previous only convened during the 1967 and 1973 wars) has effectively taken control of the country--whether with Mubarak's blessing or not, it is unclear.

Mubarak's speech last night was a ridiculous ploy on the part of a regime that clearly has lost its bearings. Multiple leaks and the Army's infamous Communique Number One raised expectations across Egypt, expectations which were dashed by Mubarak's words on state television. The very real threat of an insurrection then likely compelled the regime to speed up Mubarak's resignation, which came a mere hour ago.

It is now more important than ever that the people of Egypt not stop their important movement from below. What is at risk is all of the gains of the past 18 days: the regime is still in power, though minus Mubarak. The same elites continue to hoard the wealth of the country, the same security services persist in their repression of dissidence, the same military continues to rule--now openly. If the people simply return to their homes and cease their activity, the Mukhabarat (secret police) will begin to disappear, torture and murder once more. Workers' will be forced to make concessions; popular committees will be dissolved; the police will return to the streets en masse.

Against the machinations of the opposition parties and the Brotherhood, the youth, worker and political organizations that have made this revolution need to push onward. A new political organization needs to be formed to lead this popular movement from below. Strikes must continue and spread across the country, as must demonstrations, in order to bring the regime itself down. This will only be possible if the movement penetrates the rank and file of the military itself--a prospect that kept a Tiananmen solution at bay during the past 18 days. If this is done, then the people can push forward this political revolution--and lay the groundwork for a social revolution (one in which the basic relations of society are transformed).

The international solidarity movement must keep up its pressure. Military rule is no solution to the crisis, the people's demands are for democracy, not generals.

This is the most significant popular revolution in the past three decades. In the United States, the black population forms the bottom rung of the racial hierarchy. Accordingly, any movement for black liberation has massive consequences for the American social order. The black freedom struggles of the 1950's and 60's touched off massive social unrest across the United States, laying the groundwork for mass resistance to oppression. The effects of these mobilizations are still felt today. In the world-system, the Arab world occupies much the same position as black people in the States. Accordingly, a massive movement for Arab liberation constitutes a fundamental threat to the global social order. The Arab Spring--as many are now calling it--has the potential of fundamentally remaking the world order.

May this flowering of the Arab Spring only be the first chapter in this epic saga.

The more things don't change, the more they don't change. Where is the outrage, Mr. Obama? It's your war.

From RAWA.

Violence against Afghan women hit record

Violence against women is mostly caused by people's poor awareness of women's rights, forced marriages, traditions, and shortcoming in law enforcement as well as security challenges

More than 4,000 incidents of violence against women have happened in nine months last year in Afghanistan, a senior official in Ministry of Women's Affairs said.

TOLOnews, Feb. 2, 2011: Fauzia, a girl in her twenties, claimed she was raped by local security forces belonging to a commander named Ghafar in Herat. Her father said that security forces in the district arrested one of the rapists, but after he was identified to be a bodyguard of the district chief, he was released without punishment.

Officials in ministry of women's affairs strongly condemned stoning of a newly-wed couple in northern Kunduz province and rape incidents in western Herat province.

"We have called that those behind such cases must face punishment," Deputy Women's Affairs Minister Palwasha Kakar told local media.

Violence against women is mostly caused by people's poor awareness of women's rights, forced marriages, traditions, and shortcoming in law enforcement as well as security challenges, officials said.

More than 2,400 cases of women's violence had taken place in the capital Kabul and the rest of the violence cases had happened in different other provinces.

Violence against women is believed to be even more than it looks in Afghanistan.

Council of religious clerics in western Afghanistan urged the government to bring the rapists of the young girl to justice.

A young girl, in her twenties, was raped by provincial security forces after being abducted from her house in western Herat province.

Some Afghan parliamentarians criticised Women's Affairs Ministry for not being able to defend women's rights.

"They should have a serious approach and they must take to the streets to defend women's rights," Ms Nilofar, an Afghan MP said.

Published: February 10, 2011

KABUL, Afghanistan — After her parents threw her out of the house for refusing to marry a 52-year-old widower with five children, Sabra, 18, boarded a bus that dropped her, afraid and confused, in downtown Kabul. She slept in a mosque for days, barely eating, until a woman took pity on her and put her in touch with human rights workers, who escorted her to a women’s shelter.

Christoph Bangert for The New York Times

Christoph Bangert for The New York Times

Khodra, 19, left, and Faribah, 22, waited to return to a shelter from a family counseling center run by Women for Afghan Women.

That journey — terrifying enough for a young woman who had never ventured beyond the corner bazaar — would become harder still under new rules being drafted by the Afghan government that women’s advocates say will deter the most vulnerable women and girls from seeking refuge and are placing shelters under siege.

The new rules speak to the suspicions that women’s shelters still generate in this deeply conservative society, where the shelters have come to symbolize the competition between modern values and traditional Afghan ways. Many believe their very existence at best encourages girls to run away from home and at worst are fronts for brothels.

The changes in the law would require a woman like Sabra to justify her flight to an eight-member government panel, which would determine whether she needed to be in a shelter or should be sent to jail or back home, where she would be at risk of a beating or even death. She would also have to undergo a physical exam that could include a virginity test.

While some are hopeful that the government may soften the provisions before final approval, women’s advocates see the effort as an example of government pandering to religious and social conservatives as President Hamid Karzai’s administration starts reconciliation efforts with insurgents. Women’s rights, they fear, will be the first area in which the government makes compromises.

“I’m not sure why they are doing it — maybe because the government is becoming more conservative and to appease the Taliban they are doing things like this,” said Manizha Naderi, the director of Women for Afghan Women, which runs three shelters and five family counseling centers around the country.

“Domestic violence is cultural and it takes time to change and it will change, but women need a safe place when they are a victim of violence,” she said.

A decade ago, shelters for abused women did not even exist in Afghanistan, where even now many of the worst practices associated with the Taliban era, like arranged marriages for child brides, public flogging and mutilation of women, continue in rural areas.

Today, about 14 women’s shelters exist, financed by a mix of international organizations, private donors and Western governments. The new rules, drafted by the Women’s Affairs Ministry, would place those shelters under direct government control.

The rules have alarmed women’s advocates, who say they fear a government-appointed panel will not be able to stand up to pressure from power brokers or others who may want their daughters sent home so that they can be punished in accord with Afghan customs. Even fleeing an abusive marriage is seen as bringing shame on a woman’s family.

“Many times, I have faced difficulties from the governor or district governor who are supporting the family of the girl, not the girl,” said Soraya Pakzad, who runs shelters in Herat and Badghis Provinces. “If her father is an ex-commander and the judge is a friend and they say, ‘You have to send the girl home,’ we are able to raise our voices, but I am afraid that courage will not be found in the Department of Women’s Affairs.”

The shelter directors say they are willing to be subject to close government monitoring and are ready to adhere to government-required operating procedures. Running the shelters, however, is not something that the Women’s Affairs Ministry has the budget, the staff or expertise to take on, according to theAfghan Independent Human Rights Commission and shelter directors.

“The ministry cannot find staff for its offices in some of the provinces, so how will they find staff for the more sensitive job of running shelters?” said Soraya Sobhrang, a member of the human rights commission who focuses on women’s issues.

The Women’s Affairs Ministry has had a hard time recruiting women to work in its provincial offices in the Pashtun south and east of the country, where the insurgency remains strong. Local directors routinely face threats and assassination attempts.

The evolution of the new rules began in 2009 when Mr. Karzai set up a commission led by a senior religious figure, Mullah Nematullah Shahrani, to look into the shelters and prepare a report.

Senior officials at the Women’s Affairs Ministry insist that the new rules are for the good of the women and that they have no intention of taking over existing shelters. A copy of the draft rules obtained by The New York Times makes clear, however, that nongovernmental organizations would no longer run shelters.

“We want to have centers where women can feel safe and free of tension and seek help,” said Fawzia Amini, the chief of legal affairs for the ministry, who was involved in drafting the rules.

“We don’t want to assert control on the shelters or safe houses being run by the N.G.O.’s or other individual,” she said, adding, “We want to have our own shelters besides the shelters.”

The Afghan cabinet, however, appears to have given a clear order that all shelters should be run by the government, people who are close to the administration say. This may perhaps reflect the widespread sensitivity to the shelters by many in Mr. Karzai’s government and in Parliament, who particularly resent that they remind the public of how far Afghanistan has to go in combating violence against women.

A case in point is the minister of labor, social affairs, martyrs and the disabled, Amina Afzali, a member of the commission that visited the country’s shelters. In an interview, she agreed that there were cases where women needed protection, but was upset about the shelters’ high profile in discussing abuse.

Particularly grating, Ms. Afzali said, was the publicity over Bibi Aisha, a child bride whose nose was hacked off by her husband after she tried to run away from his home. She was photographed by Timemagazine, which put her on its cover last year, while she was staying at a shelter run by Women for Afghan Women.

Such publicity “humiliates us in the eyes of the world,” Ms. Afzali said.

“Now Afghanistan is under a microscope, but if other countries were scrutinized the way Afghanistan has been, they too would have such exceptional cases as this one.”

Some conservative members of Parliament would like to have the shelters closed altogether. Hajji Neyaz Mohammed, a lawmaker from Ghazni Province, bluntly condemned shelters as “the official places for increasing perversion in our country.”

“These shelters create problems in families and homes, and they motivate girls to flee from their houses,” he said.

In 90 percent of cases when girls return from the shelters to their villages, they will not be accepted by the community and will be suspected of having committed adultery, he said.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

I just got done listening to CNN correspondents wringing their hands that the protesters in Cairo might turn violent. Well, here are a few words for you Wolf Blitzer and all the rest who wax poetic about non violent change (if you want to know who said what below, look it up, the journey will be worthwhile).

“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”

“A revolution is not a bed of roses. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past.”

"The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall."

‎"To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt. "

“It is impossible to predict the time and progress of revolution. It is governed by its own more or less mysterious laws. But when it come it moves irresistibly.”

‎"The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution."

With all eyes on Tahrir Square, the epicentre for pro-democracy protests now on their 16th day, a tragedy has been unfolding in Kharga, Al Wadi el Gedid, away from the prying eyes of the Press and international observers.

Reports of protests being brutally put down by the security forces using live ammunition and excessive tear gas, and government-paid thugs released from prison to terrorise people and destroy property, are making the rounds online, as information slowly seeps from Kharga, “a large urban centre in the ancient oasis south of Egypt's Western Desert - a repository of monuments of Pharaohic and Christian era.”

Different reports are being circulated on the number of those killed and injured in the two days of clashes - yesterday and today.

Al Wadi el Gedid is on fire for the first time in its history.. bloody clashes between protesters and the police…the initial toll shows serious casualties among the protesters and two have been transferred to the Assiut Military Hospital. A police van was set on fire, and the Higher COurt was burned. The families of the victims warn of bigger protests .. wait for the exclusive videos and photographs

7 hours ago:

The protesters start a fire in the National Democratic Party building and are now moving to the Public Prosecutor's administrative building. The security forces are attacking with tear gas.. wait for the videos which show this corrupt regime. Just pray that I return home safe

7 hours ago:

News about the suffocation of a three-year-old girl because of the indiscriminate firing of tear gas on the houses next to the Public Prosecutor's building under the pretext that the protesters are hiding in them. Hundreds of young men are chanting: “The people want to oust the president” … the Wadi el Gedid has become the new Suez. May God have mercy

6 hours ago:

Two protesters killed in front of me as a result of direct gun shots in the eyes and brain. The security forces are using live ammunition in a brutal manner, on the protesters and the houses, indiscriminately.. Wait for the most horrific photographs and videos from the massacre that is witnessed by El Wadi now

6 hours ago:Revolution… revolution until victory! Revolution in all the streets of Egypt ..

4 hours ago:

I need the number of any satellite television station quick.. the situation is getting worse, and the security forces are wiping out the protesters. The security thugs are everywhere. The number of martyrs increases to eight - and there are dozens of injured, fighting death, now. Please, whoever reads this, give me the number of any channel, please

3 hours ago:

You sons of dogs! The police are trying to open the Wadi El Gedid prison, which spells the beginning of a real catastrophe. The fires are rising all over the district and the number of victims is increasing in a scary way. The blood of martyrs is washing the streets of the Wadi

2 hours ago:

The security cuts off electricity from all the streets in the district. Street warfare is intense between the protesters and the security thugs. I can confirm that the Governorate building is on fire. Do not worry about me. I am hiding on the roof of a building and the security forces are arresting scores of youth haphazardly. They are taken in unmarked cars to unknown places

about one hour ago:

The sons of dogs did it. The police are now utilising the services of the Al Wadi prison thugs. They have kept the political prisoners behind bars. It is noteworthy that the prison is the largest political prison in the Middle East. The building is underground. The US has offered an astronomical figure to buy that prison but the Egyptian authorities refused. A fire just started in petrol station, in the centre of the Thanawiya neighbourhood, which could be the start of a human catastrophe soon. May God have mercy

about an hour ago:

The residents are working hard to put off the fire in the petrol station before it explodes

about an hour ago:

In what could only be a miracle, the youth, men and children of the Thanawiya neighbourhood have been able to extinguish the fire in the petrol station using bucketfuls of sand. The tragedy I just discovered is that they cut off the water in the Wadi. Where will you go (from the punishment) of God?

44 minutes ago:

Confirmed news that a large number of thugs are now going towards the Antiques Museum to break into it and set it on fire. Hundreds of youth are regrouping themselves to go and confront the thugs. The youth are preparing a large number of molotov bombs to surprise them

35 minutes ago:

The youth are finding it difficult to regroup because of the darkness on the streets after the electricity was cut off. Unfortunately I was not able to tally the number of those arrested. The flames of fires continue to rise across the district27 minutes ago:

Unfortunately I will not go. I have chosen a path I must complete. I wanted to see my mother. I had hoped to see her. Also, my phone is running out of charge.